Country Code Top Level Domain
The Government of Botswana through the then Ministry of Communications Science and Technology (MCST) has mandated the BOCRA to perform the regulatory and administrative functions for the registration of the .bw domain name. The Ministry further mandated that;
- the ISPs should be allowed to perform the retail functions by registering and selling the .bw domain name;
- a Technical Advisory Committee should be appointed by the BOCRA with the representatives from the all key stakeholders, i.e. ISPs, PTOs etc to guide the operations the .bw domain registry; and
- in the long term the responsibility for the dot.bw domain management would be delegated to the proposed industry regulator through legislation.
Following the mandate from the then MCST,the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) composed of all key industry stakeholders was formed and inaugurated on the 28 April 2010. Nine stakeholders sit as members of TAC and these are; BOCRA, BOCCIM, BITS, Mascom wireless, Orange Botswana, BTC, DIT, BISPA and UB. The role of TAC includes among others;
- to identify the needs,concerns and interest of internet community;
- to promote the objectives of a fair level playing field and provide regular reports and updates to stakeholders,
- to give specialist advice where appropriate and to consider and recommend strategies for the continuation and development of the ccTLD, and;
- to represent the country in regional and international meetings concerning ccTLD as and when required.
As part of the TAC composition requirements from the BOCRA, a chairperson and the vice-chairperson were chosen among the members to facilitate the meetings of the TAC. In line with promoting team effectiveness, the TAC decides to establish two sub-committees to work on policy formulation and public awareness strategy. The two sub-committees, namely Policy Sub-Committee (BTC, Law Society, BTA, BISPA and DIT as members) and Public Awareness Sub-Committee (BITS, DIT, UB and BOCRA as members) meet at different times to that of the TAC meeting to work on their objectives.
